Lions on the loose

Lions on the loose

Our co-existence with the wild has not been all rosy. HWC has been in existence for as long as people and lions have shared land. The intensity varies with time and place, but it has always been there. It’s an inevitable part of living alongside predators. On the other hand, whenever people are determined enough, solutions are always found that benefit both man and beast. For example: Maasai’s are considered as warriors skilled at lion killing, but how many realize they mastered the art of co-existing with lions many years ago? They developed herding techniques that were perfectly geared toward preventing lion attacks on their livestock; and they used dense thorny acacia bushes as fences for their bomas (livestock enclosures) to keep out predators at night. Were these perfect solutions that worked all the time? No. There’s no such thing as a perfect solution. But they were good enough and if it wasn’t for such, there would be no Masai Mara today and you would have never seen Big Cat Diary on your television.

A maasai boma (Enclosure)

Obviously things have changed in the modern age. Many of these traditional practices have been abandoned, though not all, and people have become urbanized. There are new challenges to overcome. In places where people keep livestock with the risk of lion predation, different less effective fences are often used and make conflict more likely to happen.

Lion napping

A lot of today’s conservation issues are related to space. In protected and non-protected areas, it’s the dispersal area that is quickly being diminished. The northern, eastern and western boundaries of the Nairobi National Park are fenced as they border the urban and suburban areas of Nairobi. But the south is un-fenced to allow movement of wildlife to the open dispersal area of Kitengela, and parts of areas surrounding the park to the South. This movement has always happened, and historically large herds of wildebeest migrated all the way to Amboseli and back to Nairobi – a migration that resembled the Mara-Serengeti migration. This movement corridor was all communally owned land but in recent decades, land has been sub-divided, sold and developed which has fragmented the ecosystem. Restoration of lion connectivity would have to involve educating the general public on how to behave if they see a lion in their area. People need to understand that a lion is not going to be aggressive if it doesn’t feel cornered or threatened. Communities also need to realize that it is necessary for lions to move between different areas and in NNP’s case it might involve moving through some areas of dense human population.

Giraffe in Nairobi National Park

Collaboration is needed between KWS, NGOs, governments and the people living in these wildlife dispersal areas with proper agreements on benefits that landowners would gain from keeping their land open to wildlife. This could be through land lease programs, eco-tourism or other means. It could even be agreements such as a community getting a school built for them in exchange for their agreement to keep their land free of unsustainable development. There are many ways that people and wildlife can benefit mutually.

White Rhino’s

Nairobi National park, the only national park in a capital city worldwide, is an epitome of this age-old co-existence between people and wildlife. It would be an extreme shame if we let the park and its lions disappear forever, only to be seen in the pictures and videos. Lets all play our part and support rather than condemn each other as we strive to conserve our priceless heritage.

The Tsavo West National Park is a section of one of the largest wildlife conservancies on the planet, as well as one of Kenya’s largest wildlife national parks. It is well-known for its resident population of Red Elephants as well as the tale of the Tsavo Man-eaters. Unfortunately, most of the communities bordering these parks have never had a chance to visit them due to the cost. For these reasons Amara organizes game drives with Purdue University students each year into Tsavo West National Park. We also encourage children to form Wildlife Clubs and embrace their wildlife and environment. This year Mrabenyi Secondary School in Taita Taveta County had the opportunity to tour the vast Park and interact with the University students from USA.

tHistorically, the Tsavo Area is renowned for the Man-eaters of Tsavo, two mane-less lions who developed a taste to prey on humans back in the early 1900’s (various reasons are cited for this, one recently being that they suffered from tooth decay and pain that made hunting difficult for them!). Although they were later shot, they killed many people that were constructing the railway line connecting Mombasa and Nairobi. Additionally, it was the main battlefield between the Germans and the Britons in Africa in the course of World War I. Currently the area is very peaceful and is now famous for its resident Red-colored Elephants, that enjoy dust-bathing in the red colored soil. The serene environment of Tsavo comes mainly with thorny bushland, open grasslands and among the most beautiful scenic areas are; the Yatta plateau, the World’s longest lava flow stretching 290km; Mzima springs; Shetani Lava Flow; Chaimu Hill; and Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary.